Balancing Your Writing with Promotion

When signing a contract one of the first decisions you’ll need to make is when you plan to deliver the book(s). It’s during that conversation that you’ll come to realize how much things in your writing life are going to change.

No longer will freely write a book in six months. I mean, some can, but most authors will find the changing schedule also changes how they write. A published author no longer just writes a book. She revises the first book according to editorial direction while writing the second book. They’ll review copyedits (while writing the second book), review page proofs, review cover copy, and of course, find time in all of that to promote and market their books.

When asked how an author balances promotion with writing and building a career I look at how I do things. *from Art of Promotion

How do you balance promotion versus other stuff in social media? I know that I’ve unfollowed authors who only talk about their books and just promote, promote, promote, because that gets boring. Is their a rule of thumb or some unspoken etiquette to manage this well?

Scheduling

Despite how it might appear, I do not spend every day writing blog posts, Tweeting or making videos. All of these things are carefully scheduled into my weekly or monthly calendar.

Every Thursday there’s a to-do on my list to write a blog post. Just one a week. Me being who I am, I tend to write on a whim so while I’m scheduled to write one a week there are days when I’m inspired and write 3-4. All posts are scheduled for the future. This post was written in April, at 5:30 am.

James and I also have a specific schedule for videos. Every Friday we film 3-4 videos. Sometimes we make one long one that can be divided. Other times we film three separate videos. These are also scheduled for future dates.

Filming or writing extras allows us the freedom to take breaks as needed. We won’t film if we aren’t in the mood. If we aren’t funny, charming, or just need naps. By filming a few at a time, we give ourselves the luxury of a buffer to skip a week if needed.

For your own social media, including Twitter and Facebook, there are a number of apps that allow you to schedule your posts and Tweets ahead of time. These allow you to write all posts on a schedule that works for you. Say, Sunday night while waiting for GOT to start.

Creating Content

There is no rule of thumb to balancing your promotion posts with real life posts. I could easily say three real-life posts to one promotion post, but it’s not that simple.

This is why I encourage authors to get on social media well before a book is published, or sold, or agented, and find your voice. Take a look at my social media. I discuss lots of business stuff, but rarely do you see me post straight-up promotion. Rarely do I say, “buy this book” or “submit to this agency.”

Mostly I give advice, engage, chat, and talk about what I’m eating. This is the best type of promotion. People aren’t ever going to submit to BookEnds because I said, “submit to BookEnds.” They won’t buy your book because you said, “buy my book.”

Allowing people to get to know and like you, engages them and pushes them subtly into looking into you more. Connecting with authors on a real level is why they submit to me (I hope). I guess it’s also why some don’t. 😉

For an author, connecting with you is what makes readers buy your book. That and the fact that they want to read your book. They will look into your book not because you sent them an Amazon link, but because they like you. Because they’re fascinated by your knowledge of the Alaskan wilderness, and because what you talk about makes them interested in your book.

My best advice for social media is not to use it as a promotion tool, but to use it as it was meant to be used, to be social and connect with others. Connection, more then anything, sells books, people, businesses and you.